When lovers of the outdoors only have a minute's amount of time to get busy in the garden, growing flowers and food, a peek into other people's gardens can be a real bonus. Ideas pop up. New plants are discovered. It all becomes fodder for our own garden beds and plots.
On Saturday, June 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., The Friends of the Hailey Public Library Garden will present its annual tour.
Held in Northridge subdivision in northern Hailey, "Our Neighbors' Gardens" tour will start at the south end of Northridge Road, off McKercher Boulevard, meander along to Heroic Drive to Kintail Drive and the park on the corner of West Meadow and Buttercup Road.
Because the tour is in one neighborhood and next to the bike path, biking or walking is an appropriate way to ramble around.
Don and Chris Keirn's garden on Northridge is a mix of annuals and perennials that provides a steady source of cut flowers for the house. Star attractions include seed grown zinnias varieties of clematis and a Camperdown elm by a water feature.
Ken and Marcia Hills' garden is called "Swan Garden" because of a pair of Polish mute swans imported each spring to live on a floating island in the lake that runs along the east side of about six homes on Heroic Lane.
Kaz Thea and Kurt Nelson's "Feasting Garden" began nearly the moment they built their home in 2000.
"It's kind of nice to see a vegetable garden on a garden tour," Thea said. "We now have potatoes, onions and garlic through most of the winter. We also put up apples, tomatoes, pears and peas. New this year are edelweiss grapes that are supposedly hardy here," she said, eyeing the healthy looking vines that twirled around an arbor.
Thea also grows strawberries, greens, brassicas, beans and squash. All of this is fed with manure from Cindy Hamlin's llamas. A master gardener, Hamlin will be at the garden to answer questions. Thea's flower gardens are equally abundant, dense with color and a soft contrast to the natural landscape beyond.
MaryAnne and Ron LeBlanc's "Garden of Rooms" is divided into spaces including a "hot" garden of flowers and a fire pit and seating area with views of Carbonate Mountain.
The "Well Planned Garden" belongs to Heidi and Matt Dohse, who come up with a new project each year. In the past, they've constructed two water features, a scored concrete patio below a wooden deck and a stacked fire pit.
One of the first homes to be built in Northridge belongs to Adrienne Leugers and Drew Chilson. Their unique garden space focuses on low water use. It also highlights the clever added structures and plantings for screening as other homes were built, but they have always kept in mind that purposefully planning low maintenance in a landscape leaves more time for hiking and biking.
The Dabney family's "Recycled Garden" is populated with a variety of plants from other gardens.
"I used to work for a landscaping company, and a lot of clients didn't want things in their gardens. So it's a lot of recycled plants—some beautiful rosebushes, peonies, bearded iris," Lee Dabney said. "It's also a garden of a mother of two small boys. You love it despite its flaws. I have recycled mulch from Ohio Gulch. I'm hoping people will enjoy my cookies and lemonade and ignore all the weeds."
The Northridge Pond located on Kintail was created when Northridge first took shape. Lately, however, the neighbors got together to give it a facelift, spearheaded by pond neighbor Bob Coplin.
Other extras to keep visitors busy include a small information fair that will be set up by the city of Hailey along the pond about its experiments to lower water use in city parks. There will also be useful xeriscaping ideas. The Environmental Resource Center will offer free identification booklets on noxious weeds. The Friends of the Hailey Public Library will also have an information table.
Several artists donated work for a raffle including a canvas print of the garden tour poster, jewelry and decorative but functional birdhouses. Winning tickets will be drawn at 2 p.m. One doesn't have to be present to win.
Tickets are $15 each, and are available at Iconoclast Books and Vintage Gypsy in Hailey, Chapter One in Ketchum and outside the Hailey Public Library from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Saturday. Tickets can also be purchased at the north end of the tour, the West Meadow and Buttercup Road bike-path park, from 10 a.m. until noon.
For more information, call Ronica Henning at 788-3215 or Elizabeth Jeffrey at 788-9654.
Gardener Kaz Thea checks out her grape vines while readying her garden for the Hailey Public Library tour. Photo by Dana DuGan
